Will I regret 2 use years?

[CarolMN]

Regarding this - I haven't transferred in years for a 7 month booking and it's not unusual to use from both our UY's for them. I did a couple of times but just found it to be more bothersome for me. I just book nights in both of them and at some point ask MS link them as continuing stays. I'll say this was much more seemless years ago but it generally works ok now. Or you can book the first nights under the one membership at 8 and at 9 call to transfer the points and have MS add whatever additional nights you want for that 7 month booking.

Again, not too difficult but still, one UY is easier.

To explain further (for the benefit of the OP and those who may not know) -

Booking nights from each contract and then calling MS to combine the reservation into one continuous reservation would be the preferred method if you need to combine points from two contracts at 7 months. You'd have to wait for the 7 month window to open to book the second part of the two part reservation, though. That may or may not be an availability issue. It will depend on the vacation dates, resort and villa booking category you are trying to book at 7 months.

There is definitely a problem if you don't have enough points in each contract to book a whole night. For example, if you have two memberships, you cannot use 3 points from one contract and 5 from the other to book one night that costs 8 points. That would require a transfer (one per use year per contract) or a very sympathetic CM at MS. It has been reported that the CMs are generally good about helping members with that situation, but as always, one cannot count on that.

 

[Dean]

It has been reported that the CMs are generally good about helping members with that situation, but as always, one cannot count on that.

including transferring banked/borrowed points to finish out a single night.

 

[Belle & Ariel]

We have August at one resort and June at another. We are looking to buy more points at the June resort and would prefer a December use year. We always vacation in May and have a trip where we would have cancelled but could not with the June use year.
I will book May trips with the December use year and August/September trips with the May one.
It is not a problem and I love getting "bonus" waitlists.

 

[kungaloosh22]

Thanks for all the additional feedback and information. I really appreciate it!

I think my husband and I are going to debate this up until the time we call our guide to buy Copper Creek. We're in the process of transferring our Poly points to our trust (the title company got our notarized quit claim docs this morning). If we're going to keep a single use year/account, I guess we'll need to finish this before purchasing CCV to make sure everything stays in the same name. So I guess that's another advantage to getting 2 separate use years, in that the timing will be independent of completing the Poly title transfer, but I hope we don't need to use that as a factor. It's getting down to the wire to have the title transfer done in time to purchase CCV at the end of May with the current incentives. And watch, after all this I'll finally call and they'll tell me that CCV isn't selling yet in California anyway....

In the meantime, I'm starting to also stalk the resale sites for GFV, but there's no urgency on that.

 

[kungaloosh22]

I called today to purchase CCV, and after much back and forth, we decided to keep 1 use year (April). I wanted to thank everyone again for ALL the input. It was much appreciated and very helpful!

We decided that although we'd probably be perfectly fine with 2 UYs, the ease of having only a single UY outweighed my desire for more wait lists, OTU points, and the extra 2016 CCV points we'd get with a fall UY. The thing that made it hardest to decide is that I now know I want to sometimes travel in Jan/Feb, and that's obviously not great with an April use year. But fortunately, those will likely be shorter trips with fewer people, so at least there will be fewer points at risk. Our monster point hog, big family trips are very likely to remain in the spring, summer, or fall, so that helped me feel a little better about having only April use year.

 

[CarolMN]

I....................(snip).............The thing that made it hardest to decide is that I now know I want to sometimes travel in Jan/Feb, and that's obviously not great with an April use year. But fortunately, those will likely be shorter trips with fewer people, so at least there will be fewer points at risk. Our monster point hog, big family trips are very likely to remain in the spring, summer, or fall, so that helped me feel a little better about having only April use year.

As you know, it only matters if you have to cancel the trip. If that possibility worries you too much, remember you have the option of travel insurance. While it won't return your points, you will get some $$ compensation for them.

 

[n2mm]

I have 7 contracts (3 homes) but ALL the same UY. It takes a lot of coordinating between contracts and homes, but at least they all fall in one account. I can't imagine having different UY. I've very organized, but still get overwhelmed. One of my biggest issues is keeping MS from pulling from the wrong contract. Something I always have to double check.

 

[Sandisw]

We have two UY, but each one has a good amount of points which allows them to function on their own. When we first bought, June UY was perfect as we travel in the summer (teacher) and if we wanted to do fall, it worked nicely. Not a lot of spring time travel. Then we found a great contract with a Dec UY and decided that it fit our needs and would give us points to use for Spring Break or Memorial Day as well. So far, been pretty happy with having the two as I use one for certain trips and some for the others. I am in the process of adding on more points via resale and not sure what will happen with UY!! Might even consider a 3rd (yeah, I know...crazy), but looking at large contracts so if price is right, we will go with it...but ideally want to choose a one to match my Dec UY as this purchase is for spending extra time in Disney in winter when we retire in 2 years!!!

 

[kungaloosh22]

As you know, it only matters if you have to cancel the trip. If that possibility worries you too much, remember you have the option of travel insurance. While it won't return your points, you will get some $$ compensation for them.

Thanks, good thought! I'll look into this, especially for late Feb marathon trips.

I have 7 contracts (3 homes) but ALL the same UY. It takes a lot of coordinating between contracts and homes, but at least they all fall in one account. I can't imagine having different UY. I've very organized, but still get overwhelmed. One of my biggest issues is keeping MS from pulling from the wrong contract. Something I always have to double check.

Good to know about needing to double check the contract allotment for trips. I'll make a point to look over this with multiple contracts.

We have two UY, but each one has a good amount of points which allows them to function on their own. When we first bought, June UY was perfect as we travel in the summer (teacher) and if we wanted to do fall, it worked nicely. Not a lot of spring time travel. Then we found a great contract with a Dec UY and decided that it fit our needs and would give us points to use for Spring Break or Memorial Day as well. So far, been pretty happy with having the two as I use one for certain trips and some for the others. I am in the process of adding on more points via resale and not sure what will happen with UY!! Might even consider a 3rd (yeah, I know...crazy), but looking at large contracts so if price is right, we will go with it...but ideally want to choose a one to match my Dec UY as this purchase is for spending extra time in Disney in winter when we retire in 2 years!!!

Yes, it does seem that it's not as much of an issue to have multiple use years if you have large enough contracts. And I can see wanting more winter vacation time in retirement! We live in California and my husband loves the Orlando water parks, so Florida doesn't have quite as strong a "winter draw" as it does for most. But I can see regretting our April use year should we ever decide to move to a colder climate.

Just 2 years now, you're getting really close. That's super exciting... enjoy those upcoming winter stays!